1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to telecommunications systems used in connection with facsimile (fax) transmissions. More particularly, it relates to additional capabilities and/or options for handling faxes.
2. Description of the Related Art
The electronic transmission of documents by way of fax systems continues to be commonplace and, often, an essential component of many business activities. With the emergence of electronic mail in the business environment, many predicted the demise of fax. This has not been the case.
However, there continue to be shortcomings among the fax systems currently in use in the business and consumer markets. In the business setting, fax machines may be busy or out of paper, preventing the receipt of incoming faxes. Furthermore, there generally is no real-time notification to a recipient that a fax has been sent to the recipient. That is, a fax recipient generally is not aware that a fax exists until it is hand delivered or picked up at the fax machine. If the recipient is expecting a fax, it is inconvenient for him to constantly check whether the fax has arrived if the fax machine is located far away from the recipient. Fax machines may also be shared by many users and, as a result, the sender of the fax often will feel obligated to take the additional step of drafting a cover page to identify the recipient of the fax. In some cases, faxed documents are of such a sensitive nature that the sender would like to have some control over who might see those documents as they move from the receiving fax machine to the actual recipient. In the consumer setting, individuals may not have access to a dedicated or shared fax machine and/or a dedicated fax line. This can make it difficult or impossible to receive faxes. These circumstances result in a number of practical problems for fax users.
In recent years, Fax-to-Email services such as that provided by CallWave, Inc. of Santa Barbara, Calif., have been introduced to address these problems for users with access to electronic mail systems. Typically, faxes are converted to email attachments and then sent to the recipient's email address. However, these services are only as reliable as the underlying email delivery system. Some email systems automatically reject messages with attachments, some email systems strip off attachments and some categorize fax-to-email messages as spam and discard the inbound message. In addition, if the email capacity of an individual's mailbox is full, the email system will reject the fax-to-email message. Furthermore, fax recipients typically do not receive a notification and/or fax until the entire fax has been delivered to the Fax-to-Email service and then sent through a private or public network (e.g., the Internet) to the recipient. Email delivery delays can occur when the Internet is used. Fax-to-Email services may provide the phone number from which the fax was sent in the header or body of the email message. However, in many cases, the recipient will not recognize this phone number because voice calls are not normally made from the same phone number. Furthermore, the phone number is provided with the fax attachment, rather than in advance, so that the recipient's ability to screen faxes is limited.
As a result, there is a need for fax systems that support real-time notification and/or reception of faxes by recipients, preferably by communications channels other than to fax machines or by email. There is also a need for fax systems with more sophisticated fax handling capabilities than are currently available.